Old Dog, New Trick. Buying In Bulk. #fritz

 

Okay, this is our pan steak...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With food costs rising in a rather ludicrous manner, we thought it might be a good time to learn a new trick, what with being an old dog after all.

Here is the thing:

When a single male goes into a grocery store with a twenty-dollar bill, buying in bulk is about the last thing on his mind—he’s trying to get meat, ladies and gentlemen, he’s thinking of his next two, possibly three meals. His brain really isn’t looking all that too far into the future, which is probably why I keep forgetting the dish soap—right???

This is why we never have any light bulbs around here...but that, as they say, is another story.

The point is, our entirely rational economic agent, this guy, is just as likely to come out with a pack of wieners and buns, as anything else, anything truly healthy and nutritious--or maybe even just interesting.

One gets tired of the same old things.

Normally, I grab three or four small white potatoes from a bin in the fresh produce section, and that would have to easily be two dollars a pound—it is rather telling that I don’t even know. But then, I’m the guy with three potatoes, a handful of green beans…fresh green beans, when I could get two pounds for about $2.49 frozen, two small onions, one apple, one banana, and if I can get them, six eggs at a time. I also have other things in the vehicle when I get home, all of which, (mostly), have to come up.

Lots and lots of mashed potatoes. A kind of abundance.

***

I live on the top floor of a three-floor walk-up apartment. Yet one has to admit, if I can drag a 12-pack of beer up here, I can sure as hell drag a five-pound bag of potatoes up here.

I got ten pounds of potatoes for $4.98. That’s fifty cents a pound. Yes, you can find dark spots in there. They’re from Vrolyk, a local producer, and you can drive right past the farm on Michigan Avenue, which is, oddly enough, within the city limits. You can see some of the other things folks along that stretch grow, if you take a walk along the Suncor Nature Way, with parking either at Modeland Road or you can hike in from the Wawanosh Wetlands parking lot.

If I can carry a 12-pack...etc.

We can put that down to my peasant, nay, possibly even Scythian background. I like to walk, or ride, and scope out the local environment for available resources...you know, just in case I have to pillage something sometime. (This is why having food is a moral question, ladies and gentlemen. - ed.)

If that ain’t shopping local, I don’t know what is.

(When people talk about shopping local, it’s not like we drive to Petrolia or Wallaceburg for a quart of milk, and these days, there aren’t too many people producing cell phones or even shoes around here. – ed.)

Be that as it may, etc.

So, this is one of two pork chops, one of which costs about $3.30. It was fully one inch thick, measured with a stainless-steel ruler. Fuck, last week they were less than half that, but that’s supply-chain disruption for you. I did that in the oven, 375 F, for anything up to forty-five minutes, shutting off the oven long enough to deal with the rest of the plate.

The steak was purchased a week ago, with an Angus beef steak, mechanically tenderized, cut and trimmed into two packets of essentially stewing beef, and we still have a nice steak of at least eight ounces in the freezer. This steak was slow simmered with yellow, red sweet peppers, mushrooms and onions, with a splash of beer, lemon juice, and spiked with seasoning salt, black peppercorn, onion powder and garlic powder.

This was served with Romaine, a slab of tomato, admittedly looking a bit dark and mooshy, as well as French dressing from a brand-new bottle, ($1.99) and a bit of barbecue sauce ($2.49) for dipping the meat. Yes, we did more effing mashed potatoes...

A bottle of sauce is a bit of an investment, seeing as how that sort of thing tends to hang about in the fridge for the next three years or so.

Served avec biere as well.

#fritz

 

END

 

Our photographer Zach Neal has books and stories on Amazon, including Silent Service.

Thank you for reading, ladies and gentlemen.